EAGLET HATCHED IN MENTOR MARSH!

A Friend of Mentor Marsh emailed Becky Donaldson, Marsh Naturalist, that he’s been seeing an eaglet in the nest since last week. The nest is on the west side of Rte 44, just a couple hundred feet north of Olive St.

Our Friend is viewing the “fuzzy gray ball with a beak almost as big as its head” with a 40x scope from the field in between Rte 44 and Williams Rd. He’s unable to determine if there is a second eaglet in the nest.

The nest is large enough that when one adult eagle sits near the eaglet, the other adult can sit on a side that is out of view from Rte 44. At one point, the observer saw what might have been feeding behavior, but can’t confirm an actual feeding because of the distance between him and the activity.

And we can’t be sure that the eaglet will be fed by the adult eagles. Unlike most birds, eagles are slow to get the hang of laying eggs, brooding the eggs and feeding the hatchlings till they’re ready to fledge and become independent.

Last year after the eagles built their nest , they may or may not have laid eggs, but they sure didn’t produce any young who matured sufficiently to leave the nest.

Perhaps this year they’ll be more curious about what will happen if they consistently stuff food in the begging beak that’s invaded their nest.